Pak unwilling to do more to ease tensions

Pakistan has told Britain that it is not willing to make any new commitments to end the current stand-off with India.

"Islamabad has already taken measures that it could take to ease tensions and it is not prepared to do more," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who was in Islamabad over the weekend, was told during the talks he had with his Pakistani
counterpart Inamul Haq, media reports said on Monday.

Pakistan made it clear that it was not willing to make any new commitments on any account, the Dawn newspaper, quoting officials privy to the talks, reported.

It quoted senior government officials as saying that Pakistan pointed out it had already given a "big strategic concession" and it was now for the international community to bring India to the negotiating table to address the core issue
of Kashmir.

Straw and other senior British officials present during the discussions were told point-blank that Pakistan had done its utmost to promote peace and the ball was now in India's court, sources told Dawn.

Government and diplomatic sources told Dawn that apart from some bilateral matters, issues of cross-border terrorism, dismantling of militants' infrastructure, military de-escalation and elections in Jammu and Kashmir figured in the talks.

On Indian allegations of cross-border terrorism, the British secretary was told that they were baseless. He was told that US Secretary of State Colin Powell had recently acknowledged that Pakistan had taken all possible steps to block infiltration across the LoC.